Everything we know about the Xiaomi Mi 9 before the launch: Specs, design, features

With just a few more days to go until Xiaomi officially reveals its next flagship, the Xiaomi Mi 9, it is a good idea to recap everything we know about the device. There were many leaks ahead of time as well as official teasers offered by the company on its social media accounts. It is safe to say that we know almost everything there is about the Xiaomi Mi 9 and that the release next week won’t offer any major surprises.

Xiaomi Mi 9 Specifications

The Xiaomi Mi 9 will come with the latest and greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPU. There will be multiple versions of the device when it comes to RAm and internal storage. The base model will have 6GB/64GB but the most high-end one will come with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. Most people will go with the 8GB/128GB or 8GB or 256GB model.

The screen will have an AMOLED panel made by Samsung and will have a waterdrop notch on the top. Xiaomi claims that they managed to push the display even further down and will have a very slim bezel on the bottom. It measures 6.39″ in diagonal and will cover 90.8% of the front of the device. That is quite an impressive screen-to-body ratio. Also, it will be protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and will have an in-display fingerprint reader. Xiaomi claims that it is the faster one they have so far.

Photography wise, the Xiaomi Mi 9 will also try to impress its audience. The will have a triple-camera setup with a main sensor of 48MP. The other two sensors will be a 16MP one with an ultra-wide angle lens and a 12MP camera with a telephoto lens that will offer 2x zoom. On the front, Xiaomi will offer a 24MP selfie camera.

Design and features

The device will not impress very much from a design point of view. Yes, it will look very good but not stand out like the Xiaomi Mi Mix series. Still, they will try to impress with other features that will be available, at least at the beginning, only to the Xiaomi Mi 9. Here we must mention Game Turbo, a special mode that will improve gaming performance. The Xiaomi Mi 9 will also have NFC that can be used for payments and dual-frequency GPS, just like the Mi Mix 3.

Having an AMOLED display, Xiaomi tried to do something new with it as well. We are used in having always-on displays, however, for the Mi 9 they build upon it to also include icons and more detailed notifications. Furthermore, MIUI will come with a dark-mode that will improve battery life by reducing display power consumption by up to 83%.

Since smartphones started to use gestures instead of on-screen buttons, manufacturers needed to find a solution for calling the virtual assistant. Xiaomi decided to go with a dedicated button for the Google Assistant on the Mi 9. Hopefully, it will be customizable and you will be able to add more actions to it.

Pricing and availability

The only unknown so far is pricing and when will you be able to get your hands on it. It is said that the base model won’t surpass $600, but it remains to be seen.